


The Umbra Staff 2.0

by Tangerine_Catnip



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Blupjeans Week 2018, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fun with necromancy, Sibling Bonding, Soul Jars, umbra staff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 15:36:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14793230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangerine_Catnip/pseuds/Tangerine_Catnip
Summary: Lup and Taako build a replacement Umbra Staff. Barry helps Lup add the missing ingredient. (Blupjeans Week: Day 4)





	The Umbra Staff 2.0

Taako missed the Umbra Staff.

He first noticed it a week after the day of story and song. He'd taken his usual time preparing his outfit and doing his hair and makeup, only to stop at the front door when he realised it was raining out.

Over the utter omnishambles that the last year of Taako's life had been, the one and only thing he'd always been prepared for was rain.

But now here he was, dressed to impress and realising that he didn't own a single umbrella.

A mountain of miscellaneous magic artefacts? Check. Forty subtle and not so subtle variations on the classic pointed wizard hat? Check. Enough flashy jewellery that you could melt it down and arm a battalion? Absolutely.

A single umbrella? Nope.

No one could really blame Taako for the accessory-based lapse in good judgement. Before the day of reckoning, he never went anywhere without his staff. Owning a mundane umbrella would have been more useless clutter, and he already had plenty of that.

Taako supposed he'd had one before finding the Umbra Staff, but it'd been lost along with everything else in the protracted flight from glamour springs. When he'd joined up with Magnus and Merle, he'd only had the clothes on his back, a simple wand, and crippling survivors guilt.

In the end, Taako called Kravitz and changed the plan to a movie night curled up on the sofa.

Taako knew that ignoring the problem didn't make it go away, but he could never resist trying that solution.

Month's passed. Taako kept himself so busy that his thoughts never lingered on much of anything. Occasionally, he caught his hands fidgeting aimlessly or grasping for an invisible object, especially when he was in stressful or unfamiliar situations.

Many perfectly innocent bracelets and necklaces were broken, ties were wrinkled beyond salvation, and shirt collars were turned inside out in Taako's quest to fill the void left by a single firm slat of wood and canvas.

After toughing it for about six months, Taako finally caved.

"Hey, Lulu."

Lup looked up from where she was sprawled on the sofa. Her legs folded over the backrest and her head hanging off the side.

"Sup, Coco?"

"Remind me, uh, how long exactly did it take you to make the Umbra Staff?"

Lup cocked her head to the side. She could sense Taako was trying to lead to his real question, so she cut right to the chase.

"You want me to make another one for you?"

Taako pressed both hands against his belly and looked down at his fidgeting fingers.

"Yeah."

Lup adjusted until she was sitting the right way around and flopped over the armrest.

"Okay, but, like, how bad do you want it? Cuz, to be honest, babe, I'm still a little bit traumatised from the whole 'forced imprisonment' thing. I still have nightmares about being trapped in curtain prison while you and Barry are being tortured by fashionably dressed elves."

Taako nodded. "Yeah, of course, sorry."

Taako ducked out of his living room and headed back towards the kitchen, his fingers fisting the fabric of his shirt.

"Oh no, you come back here!" Lup shouted after him. Seeing that Taako wasn't coming back, Lup sighed and stood up, chasing him back down the hallway and into the kitchen.

Lup planted her hands on the counter on either side of Taako's hips, pinning him down like the main character of a shōjo manga.

"Answer me properly Taako. How bad do you want one?"

Taako swallowed and made himself meet her eyes.

"A lot. Um, I guess... I got really used to having it around... and when it's not, it feels like I'm missing something? Kinda like I forgot to put socks on? I mean, part of that was because you were in it, obviously. That's why it always felt like having something I could hold on to... but you have your important job now, and you can't be with me 24/sev, and if you're gone then Kravitz and Barry are with you, and then I'm just kinda alone..."

Taako shook his head, veering away from that train of thought now that it had gotten too feelings-y.

"Also, its part of my brand! I can't keep showing up for appearances without my quintessential accessory!"

Lup rolled her eyes and kissed Taako on the cheek.

"Alright. Meet me in the basement lab and bring the splinters from the last one."

* * *

 

**Taako And Lup's Super Awesome List of Improvements to Make for Umbra Staff 2.0**

1\. No more eating defeated wizards or their stuff. (It was a cool idea, but everyone agreed it caused more problems than it solved.)  
2\. Core made of chult Blackwood. Known for its ability to store magic energy and exorbitant price tag.  
3\. A built-in backup battery and swappable pre-charged spell slots  
4\. Shiny!

With that rough blueprint, Lup and Taako set to work, completely taking over the shared underground Arcanium/laboratory, even though it meant displacing Barry's experiments on the composition of postmortem energy transference.

They worked on and off for about two weeks, snatching all the time they could between reaper missions and television appearances and staying up till all hours of the night (much to the disappointment of both boyfriends).

At last, the Umbra Staff 2.0 was completed, and in Lup's humble opinion, it made the former model look like an old stick she had fished out of the woods.

The centrepiece of the new staff was a glimmering arcane core built into the top. Silver sparkles suspended in prismatic liquid shifted from one vibrant shade to the next, reflecting off the star-shaped Dimond topper.

In it's resting state, the canvas of the umbrella reflected the night sky, but on a whim, it would change to any colour or just auto pick shades from its owner's outfit. The handle was pure black with a lacquered finish and had a rainbow ribbon tied around it to embellish hand movements as it was waved around.

All and all, the venture was deemed a massive success, and Taako was over the moon with his new accessory... Or so Barry J. Bluejeans thought.

* * *

 

Lup flopped face down on their bed and let out a long groan.

Barry glanced over his shoulder, pausing mid-paragraph in his mystery novel. He put it down on his desk and came over to sit beside her.

"What's wrong?"

Lup rolled onto her side, her lips fixed in a pronounced pout.

"Taako doesn't like his new staff."

"Are you sure? He seemed to love it. He was going on about it for weeks."

"That was just him showing off. He didn't want to hurt my feelings. Do you know where it is right now?

"No?"

"In his room. When he's not there!"

"Uh..."

"He's never left his staff behind before, I would know!"

Barry nodded and gathered Lup up in his arms. He pressed against her back until she rested her head on his shoulder.

"I'm really sorry sweetie, but I think you also knew this might happen," Barry murmured as he rubbed her back.

"Yeah...." Lup sighed, as she nuzzled into his neck. Leaving it to Barry to actually say it out loud.

"This was only ever about Taako wanting to spend more time with you. Now that the staff is finished, it's just an object. It can't stand in for you."

"But what am I supposed to do B-man? Tell the Raven Queen to go fuck herself?"

"We aren't going to be this busy forever..." Barry reassured her. "We're still new to this. We'll get better and faster. But In the meantime, we could always ask her to make a small exception..."

Lup sat back and raised her eyebrows at him. Waiting to see where he was going with this.

"She has both of our phylacteries. I don't think she would give them up. But if we just... borrowed a bit?"

Lup breathed in sharply and started grinning ear to ear. "I like how you think, Bluejeans."

* * *

 

A week later, Lup, Barry, and Kravitz cornered Taako in the Livingroom, and Lup presented him with the fully completed Umbra Staff.

"Uh, you're giving me my own staff?" Taako asked with a chuckle, his eyes scanning the faces of his closest family members.

"Just hold it for a second, you bozo. You'll see," Lup insisted. She held out the Umbra Staff, handle towards Taako.

Taako shrugged and reached out to take it. The second his fingers curled around the base, he felt a sensation he hadn't felt in a very long time. A jolt travelled up his arm and through the rest of him. Without warning, he found himself locked in a battle of wills with some force inside the staff. Taako grit his teeth, pushing back against it.

The force broke, but this time Taako knew that it hadn't backed down because he had beat it, but because it'd recognised him.

Lightning bolts shot out of Taako's fingers, and a sudden gust of wind tossed all the knickknacks off the mantel and burst open all the windows. The ribbon tied around the handle of the umbrella moved on its own and tied itself around Taako's wrist in a perfect little bow.

The maelstrom died back down, leaving Taako to stare open-mouthed at his family.

"Wa-wait, what?" Taako stammered.

Lup clapped her hands together and bounced with excitement.

"Soooooooooooo you know how the raven queen basically owns all our souls? Like literally? Like she keeps them in jars?" Lup explained. "Well, I asked her if I could borrow some to give the new Umbra Staff that little extra something it needed, but then it turned out that it wasn't quite enough with just mine... so my two main boys pitched in and... BAM!"

Taako looked from them to the staff and back again. "You're all in here?"

"More or less," Barry said. "It's not enough for the staff to really have a mind of its own, but it will follow its instincts, so to speak. So, expect the occasional overprotective fireball, or ray of sickness, or..." Barry glanced over at Kravitz and made a guess. "Eldritch blast?"

Kravitz nodded.

"-and the usual distaste for any other casters."

"That means it loves you, Ko. We put the magic of love in your staff," Lup added.

Taako looked like he was reaching for a smart remark to make, but before he could find one, his eyes watered up, and he had to brush back a sudden swell of tears.

Kravitz stepped forward and scooped Taako up into his arms. Lup and Barry followed, turning it into a family group hug.

 


End file.
